


The One Where Nobody Has To Die

by RedTailedHawkens



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Because That's Kind Of The Point, But he comes back, Episode: s03e11 Going Home, F/M, Fix-It, He Doesn't Have Lines, Henry Is Just Mentioned, Hook and Regina Have Minor Roles, Rumple Is The Major Character Death, True Love's Kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-20
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-11 00:09:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28185906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RedTailedHawkens/pseuds/RedTailedHawkens
Summary: Because, really, it solves everything else. Why not this?
Relationships: Baelfire | Neal Cassidy & Henry Mills, Baelfire | Neal Cassidy & Rumplestiltskin | Mr. Gold, Baelfire | Neal Cassidy/Emma Swan, Belle/Rumplestiltskin | Mr. Gold
Comments: 7
Kudos: 29





	The One Where Nobody Has To Die

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to the Onceuponatimefandomwiki for the transcript and thanks to my Beta Dragonbat for her input and one of the lines.

How had he let this happen? Again and again, he’d underestimated his father. He’d let his feelings cloud his better judgment.

Well, it was no wonder. Wasn’t that what he’d always done? His love and fear for Bae causing him to make a foolish choice when he had killed Zoso? His fear of the unknown separating him from Bae for centuries after his son had gone through that portal? His overwhelming love for Bae motivating him to bring about the Dark Curse so that they might be reunited at last.

Well, in that at least he’d used his mind. He’d been patient, and he’d had the advantage of time. Because he had found his boy.

In truth, he couldn’t regret becoming the Dark One either. Bae would be long dead by now if he hadn’t. No, his only true regret was letting Bae go.

He’d never understand how Bae had forgiven him, never stop being grateful. Except soon, it wouldn’t matter. They’d all be dead or cursed.

He couldn’t let Bae die. He’d moved heaven and earth for his boy once, and he could do it again. Bae was finally happy. Bae had a son and a woman he loved. Bae had forgiven him.

Rumple had gone to Neverland thinking he had lost everything. Now, he had Belle and Bae. He had so much to live for. He had so much to die for. It was time to do something reckless and stupid for love. One more time, he needed to be brave.

“Look at you all. A captive audience. I could play with you like a pack of dolls, couldn't I? I think I'll start with these two.” 

As Rumple approached, he could hear his father carrying on like the story was all about him. But this was never Pan’s story. This was the story of a spinner who loved his son. This was the story of a noblewoman who loved a stable boy, a runaway princess who loved a shepherd, a beautiful woman who loved a beast, two orphans who loved each other, and a little boy who gave love freely and got it in return. This story was all about love, making it something his father, heartless as he was, could never understand.

Catching sight of everyone, frozen in place, Rumple could taste the magic in the air. Well, he knew his father was powerful. And so cruel, taunting those who could do nothing in return.

“You both look so adorable. Hard to tell who to kill first.” He was eyeing the two people Rumple loved most in the world, but Rumple wouldn’t let his papa harm a hair on their heads. He had a plan. _“_ No, it isn't,” Pan said, pointing at Bae. “You. You first.”

The time to make himself known was now. He clamped a hand on his father’s pre-teen shoulder, turning him around and pulling him away from those Rumple most wanted to protect. “Stay away from them!” he all but spat.

Well, he was never going to have the element of surprise, after all. His father would see him coming. But just like he’d underestimated his father, his father had always underestimated him.

“How about this? The worm has teeth. You're here to protect your ‘woved ones?’”

“I'm not gonna let you touch either one of them,” he said, his tone bitter and sarcastic. In the face of fear, he could be bitter and sarcastic. And brave. What was it Belle had said all those years ago? Do the brave thing …

“Oh, I'd like to see that.”

No, his father would never truly see him as a threat. His father would never truly see him as anything. Which meant that he could say his goodbyes, say the words he wanted to for the people who mattered. Because what did it matter to Pan? He thought he was going to win. He thought he was going to walk away alive. “Oh, you will. Because I have a job to finish, and I have to do whatever it takes. No loopholes. And what needs to be done has a price. A price I'm finally willing to pay.” 

He said his piece, his villain monologue, as it were, knowing that Pan thought he was just blustering. And maybe he was stalling, just a touch, but he needed to say every word he said. He needed those words to be heard.

What had his father said about a captive audience? He looked at his son, frozen, unable to fight or defend himself, but listening. Bae had always been a good listener. “I used the curse to find you, Bae, to tell you I made a mistake. To make sure you had a chance at happiness. And that happiness is possible. Just not with me. I accept that.” His father was saying something mocking and cruel, but he barely heard it. “I love you, Bae.”

And then he turned to the one woman who could see the man behind the beast, the one who had taught him how to be brave. “And I love you, Belle, you made me stronger.”

“Stronger?” his father scoffed. He’d never understand.

“Yes.” Yes, stronger. Strong enough to do what had to be done. Do the brave thing, and bravery will follow.

“But still no magic.”

“Oh, but I don't need it. You see, you may have lost your shadow, but there's one thing you're forgetting.”

“And what's _that_?”

“So have I. I sent it away with something to hide.” It had been enough time. His shadow had the dagger, and now he could call it back. So call it back he did, with a wave of his hand. The shadow returned to him, returning his dagger in the process. And now he grabbed the boy who was once a man. Once, he’d been bigger and stronger than Rumple, strong enough to fight him off. Now he was a boy, and without his tricks, and without expecting or understanding what was going on, he could be defeated.

“What are you doing?!” Pan cried out, as he struggled like the child he pretended to be.

“You see, the only way for you to die, is if we both die. And now... Now, I am ready.” And with that, finally, he stabs. He stabs the boy that was his father, and the blade goes straight through, piercing himself in the process.

He feels magic, and worries that somehow, Pan has found a way out, a loophole to exploit. Then, in a cloud of smoke, his father appears, just as he remembers him from when he was a boy.

“Hello, Papa.”

“Rumple, please,” the old conman begs him. “You can stop this. Remove the dagger. We can start over. We can have a happy ending.”

And now it really is just bluster, because he is dying. He can feel the power draining, the pain, the world fading out as he holds this shaking man who he once loved so much, and who never loved him in return. “Ah, but I'm a villain. And villains don't get happy endings.” He needs to speed this up. Dying slowly is a worse fate, and his father may yet find a way to escape. So he twists the dagger, and he feels it, pain, and magic, bright light, and then nothing …

* * *

How had this happened? He came back! He returned from Neverland alive, with his son alive, and they were going to be happy! Why? How?

How could he do this? It was a selfish thought. Pan needed to be stopped. Rumple was a hero, and he saved them all. He saved his son, which was all he’d ever wanted. He deserved to be the hero for his son. But what about what _they_ deserved? Did they deserve to end like this? Did she deserve to stand there, motionless and powerless as her true love sacrificed himself? Did she deserve to see his body convulse and collapse on the ground? Did she deserve for the ground to feel like it collapsed under her, as if she could no longer hold herself upright? Did she deserve this aching in her chest, this feeling of not being able to breathe?

How could this be it? How could this be the end of their story?

The others were talking, but she heard none of it. She barely heard her own sobs, though she had a feeling they were loud and grotesque and entirely unladylike.

As the others talked about Pan and curses and Hook’s blackened soul, she crawled to Rumple’s body. He was just lying there next to the man Pan presumably once was.

He didn’t look dead. He actually looked surprisingly peaceful. He could have been sleeping, not that he would ever have laid down in the middle of Main Street in one of his nice suits. Her hand flew up to touch his face, to stroke his cheek, to feel the strands of his hair. Oh, her Rumple. He was gone from her now, and she hadn’t even gotten to say goodbye. She hadn’t even gotten to tell him how much she loved him. She had to stand there while he told her and not say a word. Well, she would say one now, for the good it would do. They didn’t deserve to have their story end like this, to end at all really, but they deserved a proper goodbye.

“You made me stronger too, Rumple,” she whispered. “You made me better. And you made me so, so happy.” Again, she found herself sobbing. Well, let them all stare at her, assuming they’d even noticed her crouched over his body like this. More likely they were all preoccupied with something else. Either way, it didn’t matter. This was for her and for Rumple, and nobody could take it from her. “I love you,” she cried, leaning in to kiss him one last time. His lips should have been cold and dead, but they weren’t. And she felt something go through her, something more than the grief that had taken over her very being. She saw colors. And then, she heard his heartbeat. Slowly, his eyes opened.

“Rumple!” She flung herself at him, crying and holding him so tightly. She’d never let go. She’d never lose him again.

“Papa?” She heard Neal ask hesitantly behind her. They were all staring. Well, it was a sight to behold after all.

“I’m alive,” Rumple said, though he sounded a little unsure of himself. “I’m alive. And I’m mortal.” His gaze turned adoringly to Belle, who still hadn’t let go of him. “You broke my curse.”

“I wasn’t trying to. I just -”

“I know. And I love you too.” He turned to Neal, “I love you both, so much.”

“Hate to break up the reunion, but in case you’ve forgotten, there’s still a curse coming,” Hook said from somewhere in Belle’s periphery. Right. That must have been what they were talking about before. Not that she had cared overmuch then. Now, however, “Can’t Regina stop it?”

“We were just talking about it. Regina was explaining …” Emma trailed off.

“Explaining that undoing the curse will send us all back to the Enchanted Forest. All except for Henry. He will stay here because... he was born here.”

“Alone?” Emma asked, looking panicked.

“No, you will take him. Because you're the savior. And you were created to break the curse. And once again, you can escape it.”

Belle noticed Rumple tense. He’d realized something, thought of something, but she wasn’t sure what. He looked at Neal, who was staring at Emma and Henry as if he couldn’t comprehend what was happening. And suddenly she knew. She saw what he was seeing. Regina continued to explain to Emma how this would only work if she paid the price by giving up the thing she loved most, and Belle knew that Regina might not be the only one.

* * *

“You’re wrong, Regina,” Rumple said, once he found his voice. Of course he couldn’t win. He was a villain. He’d have Belle, and Bae would be alive. And maybe Bae _would_ choose him. But looking at his son, who had eyes only for Emma and Henry, he couldn’t help but doubt it. Two-hundred plus years. Would he have done it differently?

Regina scoffed. “That happens occasionally, but in this case, I assure you, I am not. A price must be paid.”

“Hear him out. If anyone can find a loophole, it’s him,” Bae said. He smiled at his father, so much faith shining in his eyes. It broke Rumple’s heart a little. “What do you have for us, Pop?”

“Yes, how do you claim I can escape paying this price?” the skepticism was clear in Regina’s words, but he also detected a note of hope. He would miss it if he didn’t know it so well, and he hated to crush it.

“You can’t. I wasn’t saying the price needn’t be paid, simply that not all here would have to pay it, or at least, perhaps, not quite so steeply.”

“What do you mean?” Emma asked. “That my parents-”

“Your parents, sadly, were caught up in the first curse. They will be returned to the Enchanted Forest. But while all here but Henry hail from there, not all were present when the curse was cast. Some were elsewhere.”

“Me,” Bae said.

“I don’t want to lose you again, Bae, but I also don’t to keep you from your son. As someone who hails from our land, but wasn’t there when the curse was cast, the choice of where you end up falls to you.”

“And you?”

“Had I not been in the Enchanted Forest when you were elsewhere, I never would have charged Regina with casting it in the first place. It seems she isn’t the only one who may have to pay a price for it.”

Rumple’s son looked from his father to his own son, uncertainty playing on his features. And once again, Rumple saw the boy Bae had been, the boy who would come to him for advice because he believed his papa had all the answers. “I know something of what it is to be faced with a terrible decision; to have two desires pulling at you from different directions simultaneously and know that you can only choose one. But this time, there is no true wrong choice. It's a question of determining which right choice is best. And you will make the right decision, Bae. You’ve always made the right decisions. And I will respect and understand it, whatever you choose."

After an agonizingly long pause, Bae shook his head. “I _haven’t_ always made the right decision, Papa. I chose to leave Emma once, and Henry, even if I didn’t know it. I can’t do that again.”

Rumple held back the sob that threatened to escape and his son took him in a hug. “I’m sorry, Papa. I wish it could be different. I wish we could be a family again.”

“But didn’t you hear the speech Snow White was making just now? We’ll always be a family, son. And I understand that now you have to do right by yours.”

As he and Bae said their goodbyes, he heard Henry bidding farewell to Regina, while Emma bid farewell to the pirate. It occurred to him, of course, that since the pirate was shielded by Cora during the first curse, he could probably stay here too. And it would be nice to keep him out of the Enchanted Forest, where he might resume his foolish mission of trying to kill him once again. But the pirate had designs on the woman Bae was in love with, so he decided not to bring it up. If it didn’t occur to the others, well, that wasn’t his fault, was it?

“Emma. There's something I haven't told you.” he heard Regina say.

“What now?”

“When the curse washes over us, it will send us all back. Nothing will be left behind. Including your memories. It's just what the curse does. Storybrooke will no longer exist. It won't ever have existed. So these last years will be gone from both your memories. Now we'll go back to being just stories again.”

He wouldn’t remember. Not only would Bae not be with him, he wouldn’t even remember that Rumple had come back for him. He wouldn’t remember forgiving Rumple. It would truly be as though the curse had never happened. Two hundred years, and to have it end like this? What had it all been for?

But he saw his son with his child and Emma, and he saw the love in his eyes. This chance of happy memories Regina was giving them. It was something. It would have to be enough.

“You'll have always been together.”

“You would do that?”

“When I stop Pan's curse and you cross that town line, you will have the life you always wanted.”

“What about Neal? He … we … we didn’t end things on the best of terms. If I can’t remember why he did it, and I don’t know about magic, I won’t let him back into my life.”

“You could have always been together too?”

Emma and Bae shifted uncomfortably. Not because they didn’t want it, but because Emma was still hurt, and unsure what she wanted, and Bae didn’t want to force her into anything.

“If I may, I know that spell quite well,” Rumple said. “The way Regina’s tailoring it, she hasn’t the time to parse through all your memories and find the ones to alter. The magic may simply give you the life your heart wants. One that allows you all to be together, be it as co-parents, or something else.”

“And all our memories will sync up? I mean, even if what we want is … not the same?”

Regina could answer that. “You’ll have good memories, for the best life that you’ll all want to live, given the circumstances. The magic will do the work. It’ll be the life you want.”

“But it won't be real.”

“Well, your past won't. But your future will. Now go. There isn't much time left and the curse will be here any minute.”

They all exchanged more hugs, prolonging it as long as they dared.

“I won’t remember that I forgave you,” Bae said. Rumple simply nodded. “But I did. I need you to know that I did. And even if I don’t remember I … I need you to know. Because you became the man I always knew you could be. And I love you.”

“I love you too, Bae. If two hundred years and a mess of magic didn’t change that, nothing ever will.”

He watched Bae, Emma, and Henry pile into Emma’s car.

Belle’s hand slipped into his and he squeezed it as tight as he could. Somewhere, Regina was destroying the scroll, but he couldn’t look away from that car, his eyes focused on the bit of his son that he could see. He’d watch until there was nothing more to watch.

All too soon, the smoke enveloped them and he felt himself being swept away to another land, where he feared there might be no happy endings.


End file.
